Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-12-17
A PEOPLE WHOSE COSTUMES ARE
OF ECCENTRIC DESCRIPTION.
A Refuge from the Artificial Life at the
French Capital-A Homeuke Meal at a
Hotel-Principal Business street-A

ASoA ANOAA ulOulClCA uuA DAAAS IUCu1 " HUI
ket. She wears q skirt coming just below
the knees, a small cap, some sort of apron,
checked CT otherwise, and has the
foot, ankle and calf entirely exposed, or
shoes or sabots neatly polished and stock
ings closely fitting and often of intricate
pattern. The shoes and hosiery are their
special weakness, and 1t is not rare to see
among them a well made foot and ankle.
The entire costume is commonly in sober
colors and neatly kept. On the contrary,
| you see little girls with long skirts COM
ing to the soles of the shoe, who look as if
they had just stepped from one of Van
dykes portraits.
AS a specimen of the male costume Of
Morbihan, we have the low crowned,
round topped hat of velvet, OF of straw or
felt bound with velvet, very jaunty, or,
as the French would say, chic. The
Jacket is something like the voluminous
exterior garment of our ancestors of the
Seventeenth century, but q jacket all the
same, and gay with rows of buttons so
thickly set that they overlap one n
other. The collar of the shirt is as broad
as a ships mainsail. It is open in front
and rises stifly up behind the head, serv-
ing as a background to a face that is tho
picture of innocence and as quaint as the
costume itself.
It is a pleasant relief to get away from
the highly artificial life and the highly ar
tificial articles of food and drink at Paris
even to q stupid and not over clearly place
like Nantes. The country offers its treas
ures more generously than the city. 1t is
pleasant to know that the wines, if they
are not Clos Vougeot, Pomard, Chateau
I4etite or Chateau Yquen, are at least all
they pretend to be; that you are neal the
place where people produce their own but
ter and lay their own eggs; where they
| even put the butter on the table and sell
their milk at four cents q quart from the
wagons in the street and at the corner
groceries. It is really with q holnelike
feeling that you sit down to breakfast Of
dinner in Il hotel in a town in Anjou, or
at the hotel at Nantes on which l be-
slowed my humble patronage. The still
ness that pervades tho dining room is sol
emn. You hear two or three flies buzzing
behind the lace curtains that drape the
windows. You look up to the ceiling not
painted by Michael Angelo, but by some
unimlnortalized local fresco painter, in
imitation Of the sky. You don't remem-
Der ever to have seen exactly such shades
of blue in the armament before. But no
matter. The chandeliers are attached to
the ceiling with blue ribbons painted flat
thereon, the ends drawn out sideways and
held in the beaks of doves, the species
and the school of art being alike unfa.
miliar.
Into the room steal ~furtiyely from time
to time representatives of the Nantals
bourgeoise-solid, solemn, funereal-who
TRANQUILITY partako Of the several courses
and then steal away as stealthily as they
entered. Perhaps there enters q whole
Breton family - father, mother, sons,
daughters and bonne-al of whom make
the sign of the cross before taking theil
places. Their dress is quiet and theil
manner almost as reverential rs if they
We're in church. The repast is served by
the mature ~garcons-one gray haired
whom you seem family to recollect as
having seen in the opera of "The Hugue.
nots." Their duty is performed decorously
and entirely in keeping with the sur
%roundings. There is none Of bewardage
SO often seen at French tables. Tho
cuisine is rather remarkable for its pro
fusion than its fine quality, thus reversing
the Partisan rule. Some dishes are ever
left on the table where persons can helI
themselves. Nothing could be more
0cter to attract attention. There art
i pNoAAoy P(A5SAAo wv NIOAC NOAI
p~aratively few persons come to Nantes
and there are four rolls of colder
butter distributed along the table
each weighing at least q pound, and, like
everything else offered you, it is "a discre
tion." Then you drink, if you are dis
posed, q whole bottle of white or red wine
The hotel is, I believe, the best in Nantes
and your breakfast and dinner cost vol
together only five francs Il day, while {
good room costs only three francs more.
In coming from Cholet to Nantes I mad,
the acquaintance Of a young lawyer O
Poitiers, Il royalist by birth aud politica
preference and a most charming and in
telligent travelling companion. He said t,
ME, "Nantes is II vile dc luxe" AS
have already remarked, this is not init
mated to the stranger. There is nothing
in the houses or shops that would indicat,
it. Then as I met him in the evening Ii,
conducted me through what he said wa.
the principal business street.-the onl,
business street in fact-a thoroughfart
narrow and crooked like the rest, half
mile in length and having on either sid
with poor displays of goods in the win
dows. There were no carriages, but i
, was filled with n crowd of promenader
: walking purposely to and fro and look
ing listlessly into tho uninterestin!
windows, as I have seen them il
the smaller towns Of Italy or else
where in Europe. There was nowher
else to go, theatres being closed and sum
= mer amusements conspicuous by thei
: absence. The rich were ut the watering
2 places; h poor were amusing themselve
+, in low drinking houses, such as are seel
! In the pictures of Temers and Steen, o
!. types that are universal and have been TO
9 300 years.
There are, however, at Nantes thing
: that are solid, substantial and elegant il
the way of art and architecture. Til
cathedral and other churches are anon,
the finest in France, and there are statue
j. of kings and other celebrities in them, o
. here and there in avenues and street
about the city. There is n library of 100,
, , 600 volumes, and the museum of paint
ings and statuary, the finest in Franc
t outside Of Paris and Versailles. 1t is wei
worth a visit. I went to the castle, whicl
is not SO massive and interesting as tina
at Anglers, and better preserved, and fror
the top Of the dungeon tower the concierg
pointed out tt me that great place Of til
e famous noyades, one OF the most infamou
"reminiscences Of the revolution.-Alber
O Sutlifo in San Francisco Chronicle.
'.Aunty' in the Kitchen.
Even to-day one will find in many Kel
lucky households survivals of the o.
order-lnd "Aunt Chloe' ruling as
despot in the kitchen, and making h,
Y will the pivotal point Of the whole dome
tic system. have spent nights with